


Light Amid Darkness

by sheafrotherdon



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-28
Updated: 2004-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-11 23:03:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/118128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheafrotherdon/pseuds/sheafrotherdon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas during Harry's fifth year -- Remus, Sirius, and a lot of early-morning laughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light Amid Darkness

Sirius scrunched up his face in consternation. There was a hand on his shoulder. There was a hand on his shoulder and someone was bloody shaking him and trying to wake him up and that meant he was likely going to have to _kill_ someone.

He was fairly sure killing someone on Christmas morning buggered your luck for the whole coming year. Which figured – he was pretty much the founding member of the Society of the Bloody Fucked Before They Bloody Started.

"Sirius, come on, you're still in your clothes."

Who _was_ this git, coming into his bedroom and touching his shoulder and shaking him when he was sleeping and adding insult to injury by bloody _talking to him_? "Bugroff," he grumped.

"You'll sleep far better if you're not wearing those . . . oh heavens above, are those really mustard colored? . . . "

Merlin, the bastard wasn't content with the shaking and the talking and the positively _not_ letting him sleep – oh no . . . he felt the need to pass judgment on his bloody _trousers_. Was nothing sacred? What the bloody fuck was the bloody world _coming_ to, and on Christmas bloody _Day_? "Bug _roff_ ," he spat, rolling onto his back.

"I confess I'd imagined you'd be rather more pleased to see me than this," said Remus.

Sirius blinked and squinted and generally tried to focus on the vague person-shaped shadow looming over him. "Remus," he breathed as recognition bloomed, his face splitting into what he immediately knew had to be an utterly spectacular idiot grin.

"So you _do_ remember me." Remus sat on the edge of the bed and began to untie his shoelaces. "Had me worried for a second."

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "S'not m'fault. S'middle of night."

"Sadly so."

"And I was sleeping."

Remus nodded. "In your clothes."

Sirius leered. "You want me naked?"

There was a huff of laughter as Remus stood again to undo the buckle of his belt. "I want to sleep myself, Padfoot, and would rather it wasn't beside a man wearing the most frightening pair of corduroys I've ever had the misfortune to behold."

"Flimsy 'scuse." Sirius pushed himself into a sitting position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "You want to seduce me, admit it, want to seduce me blind and stupid but don't know how since you've never been good at it."

"You've never given me a chance to deploy all I know," Remus countered. "Hard to seduce a man who prides himself on being ready Now, Always and Forever. The art of persuasion is lost on you."

Sirius frowned as he let his trousers fall to the floor. "Now, Always and Forever is a splendid motto and you should shut up."

"Mmmhmmmm." Appropriately disrobed, Remus lifted the covers on his side of the bed and slid beneath them. "I missed you."

And wasn't that just like Remus Lupin, to take the wind from a man's sails right in the middle of a nice bit of banter, to stop him cold with something so simple and true that a bloke's chest just _ached_ with it? Sirius smiled, disarmed. "I missed you too."

"I hear you've had a wild few days since I saw you last."

And that was utterly Remus too, summing up catastrophe and upheaval in a handful of words and delivering them so lightly you could be forgiven for imagining he wasn't worried. Sirius slipped under the chilly sheets and scooted close until they lay together, faces inches apart on one pillow. "Everything's OK."

"Really?"

"Really."

Remus sighed and rolled over onto his back. "Russia was a disaster."

"Russia's always a disaster."

"I was almost sure I wasn't going to get back in time."

"But you did."

"And then to hear from Dumbledore about Arthur and Harry and . . . "

This line of thinking wasn't going anywhere good. "You remember Harry's first Christmas?" Sirius interrupted, propping himself up on one elbow.

There was a long, confused pause. "Of course." Another. "Do you?"

It wasn't an idle question – Azkaban had stripped away so much that Sirius's memory was an inconsistent luxury. "I do. I think the tiny spleen-eating Muggle girls frightened even the Dementors."

There was a tense moment before Remus accepted the comment in the spirit it was intended and started to laugh. "Oh God, your _face_ that day . . . "

"They were going to dress me in plastic jewelry, Remus – clip-on earrings were in my future."

"And a tiara . . . "

"Oh God, the tiara . . . " Sirius grinned as Remus laughed helplessly beside him. It was such a rare thing to hear laughter unencumbered by regret or caution in this house, and he wished he could gather in the sound, hoard it away. "And you sir, with the kitten nose . . . '

Remus cackled. "You shit," he managed.

Sirius laughed himself. "You stood there with such _patience_ – God, what were you thinking? Had seven years at school with me taught you _nothing_?"

Remus took in a shuddering breath. "I don't think I was thinking. I was undoubtedly concussed from that unfortunate Playdough accident."

"Oh happy thought."

"And _you_ – you and your incredulous horror that Muggles knew about duck-billed platypi."

"Platypi?"

"Well what else would they be? Platypusses?"

"Platypussies."

A swift snort of laughter. "Far too harmless a name for such cunning creatures."

"Cunni . . . "

"Shut _up_!"

Sirius laughed appreciatively, laying back against the pillow. "And Diagon Alley. Oh the jinxes that flew that day."

"Potato masher hands."

"Great googly eyeballs."

"I've never seen so many _Accio_ 's collide in one space before."

"And who knew they would shower everyone with fuchsia sparkly bits when they did?"

Remus rolled over, burying his face against Sirius's neck, shaking with laughter again. "But the tea-party," he whispered. "Sirius you were playing tea-party with _girls_ . . . "

Sirius laughed and wrapped his arms around him. Such a Christmas gift – to have him home and safe and _laughing_. "I love you," he chuckled into the mop of hair against his jaw.

Remus lifted his head, smiling. "I love you too." Such a strange but welcome feeling this – to be comforted by Sirius instead of being the one to offer comfort. Perhaps there was truth to the idea that this was a season of miracles. He shifted until he could steal a kiss.

Sirius made a low sound of appreciation when they finally broke apart. "Harry's first was such a good Christmas," he whispered.

"Think we can make another one? Harry's . . . "

"Don't try to work it out, you'll hurt something."

"Will not."

"His several-est."

"His several-est Christmas?"

"Mmmhhhm."

A long pause. "Whole legions of new words are needed to chart your particular insanity, you know that?"

"Of course."

"So . . . "

Sirius grinned. "We have a house full of kids, Moony. Molly'll be cooking, Arthur's going to be fine, and you can trust I went entirely overboard on decorations . . . " He paused, "It'll be a great Christmas."

Remus stifled a yawn and found Sirius's hand with his own. "A pact then."

Sirius smiled. "A pact."

And in that clasp of callused hands, light was coaxed to flicker amid the darkness of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. "Well-loved," murmured Remus, burrowing closer as he fell swiftly toward sleep.

"Well-loved, indeed," Sirius replied, and closed his eyes upon a wave of rare contentment.


End file.
